Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol.111, No.23, 10415-10417, 1999
Observing the symmetry breaking in the angular distributions of oriented photofragments using velocity mapping
A novel experimental method for extracting the orientation parameter Im[a(1)((1))(parallel to,perpendicular to)] from a single photofragment velocity image is presented. The two-dimensional ion image of oriented S(D-1(2)) atoms from the photodissociation of OCS with linearly polarized light reveals an asymmetry in the angular distribution that breaks reflection symmetry with respect to the plane containing the photolysis and probe laser polarizations. This asymmetry is shown to be of the odd functional form sin 2 theta, as predicted by theory.